Collaborative Research: AF: Medium: Foundations of Oblivious Reconfigurable Networks

可重构网络正在成为最有前景的技术之一，以应对一项紧迫的需求：数据中心对网络带宽的需求，其增长速度超过了传统网络交换结构的能力。这些网络体系结构提供动态变化的连接模式，以实现高效的消息路由。最新的硬件进步使网络重新配置可以在微秒甚至纳秒内完成。在这样的时间尺度上，网络变成了一场精心设计的舞蹈，数据沿着网络数据包在传输时形成链路的路径传输。利用这一能力的网络体系结构的设计空间已经成熟，可以进行基础理论探索和原型系统。该项目将抓住机遇，为可重新配置的网络开发新的基础和系统。该项目还将产生直接的教育成果。研究人员将举办相关的暑期学校、讲习班和外联活动，旨在增加参与这些领域的研究人员的多样性。在计划期间开发的代码和系统将开放源码，供科学家、社区研究人员和/或业界从业者进行实验和评估。研究将涉及理论和系统开发的紧密结合，从而对计算机科学的两个分支学科做出贡献。在理论方面，这项研究将揭示可重构网络设计中的基本权衡。特别是，研究将集中在可重构数据中心网络中的一种新兴范式，即不经意可重构网络(ORN)，其中连接重新配置和路由都以网络需求无关的方式发生。这项研究将加深对如何设计路径伸展非常小的不经意路由方案以及如何设计优于不经意路由方案的半不经意路由方案的理解，其可能超出了可重构网络的设置而涉及到一般不经意路由理论。这项研究还将扩展新兴的“带有预测的算法”范例，以纳入可重新配置的网络。在系统方面，研究将利用理论上的发现来构建实用的、可扩展的可重构数据中心网络。在这方面，该研究将设计一种可扩展到整个数据中心的全光可重构网络体系结构。此外，该研究将解决在不经意可重构网络的新环境下的两个实际网络设计问题，即拥塞控制和服务质量。最后，这项研究将为不经意的可重构网络开发完整的网络堆栈，并为网络堆栈的快速和可扩展实施提出新的硬件设计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Reconfigurable networks are emerging as one of the most promising technologies to confront a pressing need: demand for network bandwidth in datacenters, which is growing at a rate that outpaces the ability of traditional network switching fabrics to keep up. These network architectures offer a dynamically changing connectivity pattern to enable efficient routing of messages. Recent hardware advances enable network reconfiguration within microseconds or even nanoseconds. At time scales such as these, networking becomes an intricately choreographed dance, with data traveling along paths whose links come into being while network packets are in flight. The design space of network architectures that take advantage of this capability is ripe for foundational theoretical exploration and prototype systems. This project will seize the opportunity, developing new foundations and systems for reconfigurable networking. The project will also have direct educational outcomes. The investigators will run related summer schools, workshops, and outreach activities that aim to increase the diversity of researchers participating in these areas. The code and systems developed during the project will be open-sourced for scientists, researchers in the community and/or practitioners in the industry for experimentation and evaluation.The research will involve a close coupling of theory and systems development, leading to contributions to both sub-disciplines of computer science. On the theory side, the research will shed light on fundamental tradeoffs in reconfigurable network design. In particular, the research will focus on an emerging paradigm in reconfigurable datacenter networking, namely oblivious reconfigurable networking (ORN), where both the connection reconfiguration and routing happen in a network-demand-oblivious manner. The research will add to the understanding of how to design oblivious routing schemes with very low path stretch and how to design semi-oblivious routing schemes superior to oblivious ones, with likely implications beyond the setting of reconfigurable networks to the theory of oblivious routing in general. The research will also expand the emerging “algorithms with predictions” paradigm to incorporate reconfigurable networking. On the systems side, the research will use the findings from theory to build practical and scalable reconfigurable datacenter networks. In that regard, the research will design an all-optical reconfigurable network architecture that could scale to an entire datacenter. Further, the research will resolve two practical network design problems, namely congestion control and quality-of-service, in the novel context of oblivious reconfigurable networks. Finally, the research will develop a full network stack for oblivious reconfigurable networks, and propose novel hardware designs for a fast and scalable implementation of the network stack.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.